The University of Alberta computing science professor founded Canadian-incorporated Oak Lab last month with former student Khurram Javed. Both researchers previously worked at Keen Technologies, a Dallas-based firm founded by gaming legend John Carmack. (The Logic)

Talking point: Sutton has long led the field of reinforcement learning, which essentially trains AI through trial and error. He’s recently focused his efforts to understand intelligence by building its artificial equivalent on a new kind of system, also called Oak, which can keep evolving with experience. Oak the firm is developing algorithms that “learn in real time without storing or replaying data,” constantly improving while using less processing power. Sutton joined Keen in September 2023, after Google’s DeepMind unit closed the Edmonton lab he helped lead. Keen—backers of which include Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke—is trying to build artificial general intelligence, a system with human-matching or -beating capabilities. In an X post, Sutton said he and Javed broke off to take “a slightly different path” that involves rethinking deep learning, the technical approach pioneered in Canada that’s at the foundation of most modern AI.

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